A Senate aide told The Cable that the review will proceed in two stages. The first stage, which will begin before Thanksgiving, will examine “how the [intelligence community] receives orders” about what subjects they should be paying attention to. That will be followed by what the aide described as “a longer stage” that will examine how the agencies structure their programs to collect information on those subjects. The entire review is expected to take nine months.

“Bottom line: Folks should not be skeptical,” the aide told The Cable.